Overview of a BSP

After you've installed the QNX Neutrino RTOS, you can download processor-specific Board Support Packages (BSPs) from our website, http://www.qnx.com/. These BSPs are designed to help you get the QNX Neutrino RTOS running on certain platforms.

QNX SDP 6.6 includes updated BSPs on our download site for many of the most popular and current BSPs for armle-v7 targets; these BSPs have been updated and validated to build and operate within a QNX SDP 6.6 target environment. Although the QNX BSP download page may contain QNX 6.5.0 or 6.5.0 SP1 BSPs that haven't been migrated to QNX SDP 6.6, you might want to use them in a QNX SDP 6.6 environment. This guide describes the types of issues you might encounter when you attempt to update an older QNX 6.5.0 or 6.5.0 SP1 BSP, and it provides instructions on how to cleanly build a QNX 6.5.0 or 6.5.0 SP1 BSP within the QNX SDP 6.6 environment.

Note: This document is a guideline only; it will likely not cover all of the possible issues that you might encounter for every current QNX 6.5.0 or 6.5.0 SP1 BSP. However, its purpose is to address the most common issues that you might encounter when you attempt to build an existing QNX 6.5.0 or 6.5.0 SP1 BSP within your QNX SDP 6.6 environment.

A BSP typically includes the following:

IPL — minimally configures the hardware to create an environment that will allow the startup program, and consequently the microkernel, to run.
startup — it's purpose is to copy and decompress the image, if necessary, configure hardware, determine system configuration, and start the kernel.
default buildfile — specifies any file and commands to include in the image, the startup order for the executables, the loading options for the files and executables, as well as the command-line arguments and environment variables for the executables.
networking support
board-specific device drivers, system managers, utilities, etc.

The BSP is contained in an archive named after the industry-recognized name of the board and/or reference platform that the BSP supports (soc_vendor-soc-board.zip). BSP packages are available for QNX Neutrino, Windows, or Linux hosts.

Note: To use a BSP, you must either unzip the archive and build it on the command line, or import it into the IDE.

The BSP components are provided in source code form, unless there are restrictions on the source code, in which case the component is provided only in binary form. BSPs are provided in a zip archive.

Note: The QNX community website has more information about BSPs; see http://community.qnx.com/sf/sfmain/do/viewProject/projects.bsp.